


A Cup of Coffee

by Impalallama8432



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post-Episode: s04e07 The Initiative, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:54:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23245855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impalallama8432/pseuds/Impalallama8432
Summary: Spike's out of the Initiative, and he's out for slayer blood. But what if instead of Willow, he bumps into the lady herself?
Relationships: Spike/Buffy Summers
Comments: 4
Kudos: 78





	A Cup of Coffee

Spike ran through the college campus, practically skipping. Finally. He'd get his chance to kill the slayer, and this time he wouldn't stop to gloat or posture. It would be quick; he'd hold her down by her wrists and bury his fangs into her neck. Of course, this would be after their fight, so she'd be panting and blushed red from the exercise. Oh, how she'd fight gloriously, her hair bouncing around and her eyes blazing. But he was William the Bloody! Spike! Slayer of Slayers! And running on pure adrenaline too. She'd be no match for him this time.

Spike was going so fast, putting his vampire speed to good use, that he almost didn't notice her sat on the bench. He had been heading to the administration office to get her doom number, but it looked like he wouldn't have to.

He skidded to a stop, far enough away that a human wouldn’t be able to tell who it was, and looked at her, all alone in the moonlight. _God, she’s beautiful_. Spike blinked, now where had that thought come from. He waved it away as the thought of drinking slayer blood again overwhelmed him, and he started to stalk the distance to the slayer. Just before he got close enough to smell her, he heard a branch snap a way off and melted into the shadows, his back pressed up against a tree. He cast his gaze around, eyes searching for the sound and growled when he saw what it was. Commandos. Three of them. Like him- watching the slayer.

He scrambled up the tree next to him and settled on a branch to see what would happen. Were they going to report his escape to her? Ah well, he'd lost the element of surprise, but it would be fun- the slayer knowing he was coming and still unable to stop him. Or did they not work for the slayer after all? Would they try and capture her too? She would fight them off, obviously. Slayer was too good to be taken down by a couple of G.I. Joe's.

Spike watched in anticipation. Licking his lips. God, he was hungry, but the thought of slayer blood gave him the patience he needed. He watched curiously as one of the men stripped down to civilian clothing and passed his gun to one of the others. He began to creep up on the slayer. Was he going to attack her? Spike would be damned if he let that boy do his job. But the slayer stood up, stake drawn to him. She could take him, he thought smugly. Then she put the stake down, her eyes widening.

"Riley! What are you doing here?" Oh. So, the slayer did know them. Great.

"Well I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to you after the party, you left so fast." Spike tilted his head to the side as he watched Buffy stuff her stake in her bag. What party? What the hell was going on? "You know, with your friend. Who's a boy."

"Uh? Xander? He's not anyone I- want to talk about. Um, I don't want you taking this the wrong way... it's just, I need a little alone time now." The slayer shot a forced smile at the boy- Riley, had she called him? "Alone." She stressed.

"Why?" _Why?_ God Spike already hated this tosser. _Leave the lady alone so that I can have the honour of killing her_.

"I need space." She was quick to provide.

"We're outdoors." He was quick to rebuttal.

"Emotionally." She seemed surprised by her own words. "I mean... Emotionally." She repeated lamely. It reminded Spike of when they had had to come up with an excuse together to hide from Joyce. A band? Really, what had the slayer been thinking? She wasn't a great liar. Not that Spike was any better, but that was beside the point. Although that brought another thought to mind. Did this guy know who Buffy Summers was? It didn't look like it. Didn't look like the slayer knew who this guy was either.

"You know, there's plenty of space back in your room. Why don't I take you? You wouldn't believe the weirdos out at this hour-" Riley moved to grab the slayer and Spike had to suppress the urge to jump on him and beat his bloody head in. He was not a weirdo. And who was he to touch his slayer? Eh? Buffy jumped back, pushing his body away firmly. Okay. This guy definitely didn't know who she was.

"Woah! Okay! It's a free campus. Who died and made you John Wayne?" The slayer seemed irritated now, and Spike grinned, he wondered if she would punch the guy herself.

"I'm just trying to help you."

"You think I need help? Believe me, I don't. You know if you were a real gentleman then you would just leave. You would go far, far away now. Shoo!" She sat back down on the bench, looking exasperated.

"Are you drunk?" Spike rolled his eyes. But the slayer jumped on the opening.

"Yes. Go and report me."

"I'm taking you home." It seemed Riley had had enough, he attempted to pick the slayer up, but severely underestimated her strength as she pulled her way out of his grip with ease.

"You ever think maybe I'm gonna take you home huh?" She crossed her arms and took some steps back from the boy, who looked on in confusion. "What? You think that boys can take care of themselves and girls need help?"

"Yeah." Spike's eyebrows shot up.

"Wanker." He whispered.

"That is so Teutonic." All the playfulness in Buffy's voice was gone now.

"As long as you're out here I'm staying." Riley planted himself in her path.

"Well as long as you're out here, I'm staying." She challenged. They stood, facing off for only a brief second before a beep on the government boy's watch made him look down at it and pull a face. He looked up at Buffy and chewed his lip before saying.

"Look I gotta go. Just- look after yourself okay? Please go inside soon." Buffy rolled her eyes as he walked back to the other two hidden men.

"Jerk." She sat back down on the bench as Spike watched the men sneak off to another part of the campus. He made sure they were gone before dropping to a lower branch, just above the slayer.

"Couldn't agree more pet." He said and relished the look of surprise as his slayer looked up and saw him. Spike wasted no time. He jumped onto her, already in game face and pulled her head back to drink. Not exactly how he planned. But Spike never was one to stick to his own rules that strictly. Or anyone else’s rules for that matter. Mainly he was upset it was over. This slayer had been fun. More so than the other two he'd killed. He briefly wondered what trophy he would take from this one.

And then his head exploded.

Faintly, he heard a scream of pain, the slayer's? No. It was deeper. He didn't realise it was his own until he was on his back staring up at the night sky. When he did, he stopped immediately, wouldn't do to have a pounding skull and a sore throat. What had happened? He'd trapped the slayer's arms by her sides, she couldn't have hit him. And she'd certainly never hit him that hard before. So hard he was still feeling the aftershocks of pain. Had the army boy come back? Hit him with a brick? Or more likely, the butt of his gun? But when Spike was able to see again, and slightly move his head, he saw no one but the slayer, looking at him in confusion. She hadn't even got her stake out.

"What the hell Spike? You chicken out or something?" She asked after what seemed like hours. Spike felt sluggish as he pulled himself up onto his elbows.

"No. I- I don't understand. This sort of thing's never happened to me before." He shook his head, thinking that might help. It didn't. His nausea increased tenfold. "Oh god." He managed, before rolling over to his front and throwing up.

"Jesus Christ! Are you okay?" The slayer asked, kneeling down to his level.

"I felt alright when I started." Spike replied. "Let's try again." The slayer really shouldn't have let her guard down. He made to bite her again and- "AGH! OW! DAMN IT!" He clutched at his head, rolling away from her, as well as his vomit. What the fuck was wrong with him? He had a brief thought to what Dru said in South America but shut it down just as quickly. This had nothing to do with emotion. He physically couldn't hurt the slayer. _Fuck._

"What- what's wrong with you?" She asked.

"Nothing!" he snapped. And then, "I don't know!" He whined. His eyes were closed. He knew the slayer had a stake. He should be on full alert, so why did he feel like curling up into a ball and crying? If he couldn't fight- who was he? He was no better than nancy boy Angel.

"Are you crying?" The slayer asked, more sympathetically than Spike had ever heard her voice. What was up with that?

"Not yet, no." He answered truthfully. Then opened his eyes, shocked to see the slayer crouched next to him, looking down quizzically, stake in hand. She looked heavenly like that; it was as if the streetlamp gave her a fake halo. "You planning on using that?" He gestured to the stake and ignoring his thoughts. She narrowed her eyes.

"You planning on killing me?"

"I was. But I-" Spike's voice broke. Jesus, now this was a new low. He would not cry in front of the slayer. He sat up instead, holding the tears at bay and running his hand through his hair.

"What's wrong? Can't bring yourself to bite me?" She taunted.

"Can't bite you at all." Spike replied dispassionately. Telling the truth had gotten him this far. Really, while he wasn't in immediate danger of getting staked, he should probably leave while he still could. He furrowed his brow and shook off his game face. What if it was just biting? He grabbed the slayer's arm quickly and pinched hard. "BLOODY FUCK!" He screamed and fell back on the ground.

"Shh! Someone could hear you!" The slayer slapped at his arm.

"Oh sorry love. Just in excruciating pain over here." He drawled when he felt well enough to speak again. He opened his eyes to say something else, when he saw her expression. Concern. The slayer was actually concerned. For him? The world had gone topsy-turvy.

"Why? What's happened Spike?" She asked softly. Softer than she would've if she hadn't seen the pain he was in first hand, he bet.

"I keep telling you slayer- I don't-" He cut himself off as remembered what that other vamp had told him. Experiments. Holy shit. Had he been experimented on? He felt the need to throw up again and turned away from the slayer to throw up on the other side of his body. He felt a warm touch on his back as he hacked the last bit of onion he'd been eating as he came back from LA. That felt so long ago. It could have been. He had no idea how long he was in that lab. Spike began to panic, how many experiments had they done? Could he just not fight, or were there other side effects? The only thing stopping him from breaking down was the soothing rhythm of the hand on his back. Round and around in circles. God, he was pathetic. Relying on his sworn enemy for comfort. "Thanks." He choked out.

"No problem. Um. Are you feeling better?”

No. "Yeah."

"Could you tell me what happened now?" She moved her hand off his back. He sighed and closed his eyes. Leaning back to lie on the grass. In between two piles of vomit. Lovely. The slayer seemed to think so to, as she shifted and stuttered. "Uh, maybe we should go back to my dorm, you can tell me there?" Spike shook his head.

"They'll find me there." He hesitated. Where could they go? He needed to get off campus. And fast. He couldn't protect himself anymore. He felt tears swell in his eyes and fought to keep them from falling at this realisation. He was kept from having to talk by his stomach growling.

"Well we should go get you something to eat anyway. And what do you mean 'they'll find you'? Who's 'they'?" Spike shook his head, afraid if he spoke, he would break. He would not cry in front of the slayer. He wouldn't. She stood up and cleared her throat. The vampire cracked open an eye and saw she was offering him a hand up. Like an avenging angel. He took it, glad. He didn't think he'd have the strength to stand up by himself.

"Thanks." He croaked and followed behind her as the slayer led the way off campus. She kept looking back at him, still holding her stake. So, she wasn't entirely convinced about Spike, but he couldn't care less. If he wasn't dust yet, he considered that a win. In fact, he should probably run before she had the chance to stake him properly. He wouldn't even be able to fight back. But the slayer had mentioned something to eat, and Spike was starving. Literally. He could tell he looked like shit. Gaunt. And he hadn't drank any blood since LA. He still didn't know how long ago that was.

The walk to the butcher's was silent, once they had made it off campus without incident, Spike had relaxed marginally, but then he'd had the sudden thought that the whole town could be crawling with the men, and then Spike was even more on edge, jumping at the slightest sound. He was with the slayer, yes. But what if she turned on him. It wasn't like they were chummy before. Well, they sort of were with Acathla, and they'd worked together on the love potion, before Spike realised, he didn't need it... But they'd been at each other’s throats when he had the gem. He'd nearly managed it then. Killing the slayer. If only eh? Then he wouldn't be in this mess.

Yeah. This was all the slayers fault. But he couldn't exactly blame the slayer when she was buying him blood from the 24-hour butchers. He'd blame her later, right now, he'd tell her everything he knew.

She led him to the Espresso Pump and ordered a latte and an empty cup. He raised an eyebrow at the second order, but she didn't say anything. So, he asked.

"What's with the cup?" She looked up at him in surprise, as if she'd forgotten he was there at all.

"Oh! You'll see." They walked to a table in the corner, Spike’s back against the wall. He couldn't help feeling trapped, before realising from his vantage point, he could see all the exits and down the street a fair way. Surprised, he turned to the slayer to ask her if she'd done this intentionally but froze when he saw what she was doing. She had opened the empty cup and was carefully pouring blood from the container into it. A little steam came of the blood as it was poured, and Spike's jaw dropped.

"It's hot?"

"Yeah. I asked the butcher to warm it up for you. It tastes better that way." She finished pouring the blood and closed the plastic container, as well as the coffee cup. It didn't look any different to hers. Huh.

"You know from experience?" He snorted.

"Ew. No, Angel told me. He hates pigs’ blood, prefers when he can get human. But he said it was alright when it was hot." She shrugged. "And the blood bank isn't open on Wednesday."

"It's Wednesday?" Spike asked breathlessly. It was Monday when he'd been taken, so it hadn't been long at all. Of course, that was dependent on it being the same week. Or even the same month.

"Jeez Spike, you only saw me last Friday. You been on a bender or something?" He breathed a sigh of relief. So, he only been in that place for Monday, Tuesday, and some of Wednesday. A traitorous voice in his head whispered that that was plenty of time to do all sorts of things. He pushed it down and focused on the blood in front of him. It did taste like shit, but he was glad it wasn't cold, he could imagine how much worse that would be.

"Thank you." He said, once he'd downed half of the cup.

"No problem. Now. I demand my repayment." Spike bristled, at least with the Amara treasure he could start paying her off. In fact, he should go get that sorted before Harmony got any ideas. "Information." Spike raised an eyebrow, that he could very easily do.

"About what?" He said nonchalantly, better to keep his cards to his chest.

"What happened? To you I mean. Why can't you hurt me?" Spike's attempt at nonchalance failed as soon as he was reminded of his ever-present problem.

"I don't know for sure. But I have an idea." Buffy sipped at her own drink and gestured for him to continue.

"I'd just got back from chasing the ring down in LA and coming back empty-handed right?" Spike began. "And I was on my way to kill you, since it was your fault I wasn't having a nice stroll in the sun at the moment. When, I got shot by something, felt like being tazed, and I fell to the ground. They must have shocked me into unconsciousness cause next thing I know I'm in a fucking padded cell. All white and-"

"The commandos." Buffy breathed out, now more interested than ever.

"Oh you've heard of them?"

"I ran into one, but we know nothing about them." She sipped at her latte with shining eyes. So, this was important information to the slayer. Maybe he should hold it over her head, leave her a reason to keep him alive. But she hadn't killed him yet, she'd been surprisingly kind, he couldn't repay that kindness by withholding information. That would be evil. He scrunched his face together. He was evil. He was the evilest evil to ever- God, he'd been spending too much time around Buffy.

"Right well, here I was pacing in this cell, it had electrified walls and I could see at least 20 other cells just like it down this corridor." He continued to tell the tale of his escape and answered questions until he got to where he met Buffy. "So, I was out for your blood and I see you sat alone. I nearly trip over myself in my haste to get to you, but something stops me. I hear and then see some of them watching you. So, I scramble up the nearest tree and settle to watch what I think will either be a business meeting or a brawl."

"But they moved on. I didn't bump into any of them before you dropped in." Spike shook his head.

"Yes you did love." Buffy furrowed her brow, about to say something else when her face suddenly smoothed out in realisation.

"Oh. Oh! That's why he was trying to get me away. He knew you’d escaped."

"Yeah. Went about it in a fucking wonderful way though. Boys don't need protecting, but girls do? I've seen Dru, a girl, kill thousands of boys over the years who definitely needed protecting. And what about the slayer? One girl in the whole world. Not one boy. Sexist wanker." Spike downed the rest of his blood, now lukewarm and really quite vile and shook his head to clear it.

"I guess you're right." She had leant back in her chair, her hair cascading downwards and exposing her bronzed neck that Spike would probably never be able to sink his teeth into now. He almost whined. Now he would never be able to lick a strip up her neck and nibble at her earlobe before pulling her skin closer to his mouth and kissing her neck right on her pulse point- and woah. He meant biting. Biting her neck. When had any ideas of kissing come from? It was Dru and her stupid ideas polluting his brain. The only thing he should what to do to the slayer's body is drain it dry. Not kiss every patch of skin visible, and then run his hands through her hair and pull her up for a real kiss, his tongue slipping in and- yeah. Not that stuff. Just killing her. He coughed, fidgeting in his seat at his own treacherous thoughts.

She moved her head back down to look at him but that wasn't any better because now he could see her eyes, that sparkled in the warm lighting and her lips which he just decided were the most beautiful on the planet, in fact her whole face was- no her whole body- crap. He knew he wanted the slayer, but, not like that.

“Maybe that’s why he’s been trying to talk to me so much! They figured out who I am and they’re trying to, I don’t know, trap me? Or recruit me? I probably would’ve said yes if you hadn’t told me the conditions everyone is in down there. God, I was that close to becoming a god damn Nazi!” She threw her hands up in the air. Spike was aware her lips were moving now, but for the life of him he couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying. All he could think was Buffy pretty, Buffy nice, Buffy not killing me, want to kiss Buffy. Which, he’d admit, wasn’t his best plan. “Spike are you even listening to me?” He looked up at the sight of him saying her name and saw her suspicious expression. _Fuck. She caught me staring. Fuck_.

“Hmm, yeah. Nazi.” He tried to salvage the situation by latching onto the one thing he’d known she said.

“Okay, what’s up with you mister? I know you’ve been through a traumatic experience and all but can you not space on me?” Spike nodded.

“Yeah, sorry pet. Just… the trauma.” He nodded solemnly. _Thank fuck._

“Right, well. I need to get back to HQ. Let them know you didn’t manage to kill me and the new information.” Spike nodded. He tried to think of something to keep her near him, but nothing came to mind. But she didn’t make a move to leave. She picked at her coffee cups label instead, which drew Spikes attention to her hands and _god, is there anything about this woman that isn’t beautiful?_ He thought to himself. “Unless…” Spike latched onto that word with his very being.

“Unless?” He prompted when she said nothing after.

“Unless, you don’t feel safe on your own? I mean, we know you can’t hurt anyone.” (He couldn’t. They’d tested it on the butcher.) “So, maybe it would be better to keep you close by.”

“Sure you don’t want to keep me close for any other reason?” Spike leered and watched in delight as a pink flush began to creep up his slayer’s neck.

“God Spike. I was trying to be nice to you, stop being a pig.” She scoffed and threw her empty cup in the bin, standing up and making to leave. Spike was suddenly hit with a wave of fear. Maybe the slayer had been right, he didn’t feel safe on his own. He felt like little William all over again. Scared of the big bullies. In this case though, the bullies could potentially kill him.

“Wait!” He stood up and grabbed Buffy’s wrist, before dropping it as soon as he realised what he had done. She looked at him in shock, and Spike suddenly felt very uncomfortable. “I don’t. I don’t feel safe. Please can I…” God he was a ponce. “Can I stay with you?” Buffy softened at his words.

“Of course. But maybe not at Giles’.” She looked away, thinking. “I can always phone him from my mum’s. C’mon, we can hide out there while you’re still undesirable number 1.” She slung her handbag over her shoulder, and they were off, walking down the residential streets of Sunnydale. The walk got boring quickly. Spike looked over at the slayer and was surprised to find the blush he’d caused earlier still slightly there. Well, well, well. He could have fun with that.

“I’m glad you enjoyed our date enough to let me come home with you Miss Summers.” Spike grinned as he watched the red creep over Buffy’s skin.

“Gross Spike! That was not a date.”

“And on the first date too. I must be lucky.” He continued, enjoying the way the tops of her ears turned red.

“This was not our first date.” Buffy snapped, turning even redder.

“Oh?” Spike smirked. “When was our first date then? Your parent teacher day? The day you threw a pipe organ on top of me, the day we worked together to save the world, or the day where-“

“I can stop helping you, you know? Leave you to the wolves. Do you want that Spikey?” A flash of fear stopped his joking mood in its tracks.

“Sorry.” He grumbled, looking at the slayer’s feet instead of her face. She sighed deeply.

“Stop making me feel sorry for you. It’s confusing my inner slayer.” Spike laughed.

“Imagine how my demons reacting, taking comfort from you.” Buffy smiled and Spike filed it away as the eighth wonder of the world.

“Why are you taking comfort from me? I’d be scared shitless if my mortal enemy found out I was toothless.”

“Oh please, as if anyone could take your bite away.” Spike scoffed. He knew there was a point where the slayer hadn’t been, well, the slayer, but he couldn’t imagine her like that. Her power seemed etched into her being. It made her gorgeous. Buffy had gone silent, contemplative.

“Someone did.” She finally said. Spike’s face must have betrayed his shock because Buffy explained further. “On my 18th birthday I had my Cruciamentum and that involves-“

“Oh, I know what it involves pet.” Spike couldn’t help the growl that escaped him at the thought of his slayer in that position. Wait. Did that mean Ripper...? God, if he thought he wanted to snap his neck before.

“Giles got fired over it, it was a whole big thing. But it made me realise how much I’d come to rely on my powers. I felt so weak.” She shrugged, obviously bothered more than she let on, but Spike let it go. “I know it’s not the same. That was only temporary, and I’m not a huge fan of trying to get you better too soon. But, I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’ve been there.” He bumped his shoulder into hers.

“Thanks slayer.” He breathed out. They spent the rest of the walk to Buffy’s house in companionable silence. It reminded of him the last time they’d walked to her house together. Except of course, this time the police weren’t after her. And he wasn’t worried about Drusilla instead of the government. And Buffy wasn’t half dragging him. Okay, so it wasn’t much like that walk. But still.

“Joyce home?” He murmured as she opened the door and stepped inside.

“Yeah, so be quiet. She’s been at work all day.” Buffy walked further into the house, leaving Spike on the porch. He cleared his throat as loud as he dared. It had the desired effect, the slayer turning to look at him. “What are you doing?” She whispered.

“Know the bonding experience might have made you forget, but I am a vampire pet.” She turned her head to look at him quizzically. “Need to be invited. Ringing any bells?” He gestured to the invisible barrier he knew blocked his entrance. He expected a quick apology and invite, but it never came, instead the slayer rolled her eyes. Oh no. All this way, and she wasn’t even letting him in? He’d known the slayer to be cruel, but this was evil.

“You were never disinvited Spike. Close the door behind you.” With a brief sentence, Buffy had changed the course of Spike’s inner monologue from betrayed, to deeply shocked. He almost didn’t believe her, but he held out a hand and- yep. Right through the barrier. Huh. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he jumped inside and closed the door as quickly, and quietly, as possible. Instantly he felt ten times safer than he did outside. In here was the slayer’s turf, and the commandos could try something, but now they’d get knocked on their arses for sure. This was the safest place in Sunnydale for him right now. It was just a plus he got to enjoy the company of the slayer for longer than he’d thought when he started the night. Of course, he’d planned to kill her then- God, that seemed so long ago. He didn’t think he could handle the idea of her being dead now.

The smell of blood distracted him from his thoughts and he followed it to the kitchen, where Buffy watched the microwave intently, as the mug in it span round and round. Was she warming up more blood for him? If Spike’s heart could beat, he was sure it would skip one. Why was she being so nice? Spike almost started crying again before he realised where he was and who was in the room with him. Instead he swung up onto the counter and sat, waiting in silence for the blood to heat up. And his head to stop letting him know how gorgeous and kind the slayer was. For god’s sake, he got it! She was the best person alive! So, he should stop with the nervousness and get on with his unlife.

There was a second left on the blood when Buffy opened the microwave early, he almost asked why, before he saw her look upwards nervously. Ah. Joyce.

“She’s still asleep, don’t worry pet.” Spike said to calm her. Buffy looked a little less jittery, but still cautious, as she handed him a mug of blood.

“Careful, it’s hot.” She warned. It was hot, but not as hot as the slayer’s own skin that brushed against his when she passed it over. Jesus, he _was_ acting like William. All Victorian and repressed. _Get a grip Spike_.

“Thanks, you didn’t have to.”

“Yeah, but then I’d worry you were hungry enough to try bite one of us through the pain.” Buffy joked softly.

“As if. I like Joyce.”

“Oh but no promises for me?” Her eyes sparkled when he looked at her, and he wished, not the first time, that the stupid poet in him could shut up about her emerald pools he could get lost in. They were just eyes. Jeez.

“No promises.” He smirked and brought the blood to his lips. It was almost scalding, but he was pretty sure that was the only way it could go down. So, he drank it in long gulps. It wasn’t as if, if he burned himself he wouldn’t heal.

“You want to put on a film or something? I’m too buzzed to go to sleep, thought I was gonna be fighting tonight.”

“Oh yeah? Love to fight you slayer, you’re a force of nature. Felt kinda sad about killing you.”

“As if you could’ve killed me, if we fought as planned you’d be being swept up by the groundskeeper right about now.”

“Why aren’t I?” Spike was suddenly struck. It had been curiosity at first, then the desire for information, but now he had nothing to offer the slayer. Not even as a fighter.

“I’m not going to kill someone who is less likely to hurt me than your average college student.” Buffy hesitated for a moment. “Although, if Riley is really a government agent, I don’t think I want to know how dangerous an average college boy is.” Spike laughed at that, the slayer tried to shush him, but she was smiling too much for Spike to know she wasn’t too worried. “So, film?”

“Sure.”

“Right, I’ve got to call Giles, put some popcorn in the microwave and we can have it while we watch the film.” She was already out of the room, leaving Spike with no choice but to search for where the Slayer kept her popcorn stash. He’d just put it in when she returned to the room.

“How long?” He whispered.

“4 minutes.” With the popcorn set, they went into the living room to decide what to watch. After a few minutes of quiet arguing, Spike saw a videotape he hadn’t before.

“What’s this one then?” He lifted up the unlabelled tape. Buffy looked it over and groaned.

“Moms recordings of Passions. We are _not_ watching that.” But Spike had lit up.

“Your mum watches Passions? Oh I knew I liked her, it’s great isn’t it?” He seemed to have not heard her say her distaste for the series, or he was at least ignoring her. Really, Spike was excited about the idea of something familiar in the face of all this change. Passions couldn’t let him down. It seemed like Buffy was going to argue, but she couldn’t bring herself to shatter the expression on Spike’s face, so, with a half put on sigh, she grabbed the tape and put it in the VCR.

Spike all but jumped onto the sofa, grinning like a kid on Christmas morning. He watched in confusion as the slayer walked into the kitchen, was she not watching it with him? He felt his grin slip a bit, until she returned with a bowl full of sweet and salty popcorn.

“Oh slayer, you know how to treat a man on the first date.” He grabbed a handful before she could protest and stuffed it in his face.

“First off, Ew. Second off, ewwww. Thirdly, this isn’t a date.” She sat on the sofa next to him and put the popcorn between them.

“Could’ve fooled me slayer.” He murmured as he watched the TV intently. “Can’t we have it any louder?”

She shook her head. “Mom will hear us. And don’t you have vampire hearing anyway?”

“Yeah, but quiet is quiet.” He shrugged and settled back into the cushions. “Oh, I love this episode!” He watched as she got comfortable too, pulling the blanket round herself, and grabbing some popcorn. They continued like that for a grand total of two minutes before Buffy began complaining.

“Magic doesn’t work like that though!”

“It’s a TV program slayer, I don’t think they checked with any local witches if their Latin pronunciation was correct.” Spike drawled, head lolling over to watch the slayer. Her face was all scrunched up, it was adorable.

“Whatever,” She mumbled and sank back into the cushions, hand stretching to take some more popcorn and hitting Spike’s on the way. Spike looked down at their hands in shock, he’d just wanted some more popcorn, he hadn’t been expecting Buffy’s hand to be there, and judging by the interesting shade of red she’d gone, neither did she. Thank God vampires couldn’t blush. “Um...”

Her small exclamation was enough to make Spike realise his hand was still resting on hers, and he yanked it away as if burnt.

“Uh...” Spike searched for something to say, to project some false bravado. _First date jitters?_ No. He’d waited too long now. He searched for anything to say. “So, you never did tell me why you were sat on that bench all alone. I thought you said you were planning for a fight?”

The slayer looked relieved at the distraction the words offered.

“Oh, I was waiting for you.” At her own, however, she’d reached the colour of a tomato again.

“How’d you know I was back in Sunnydale?” Spike pressed, trying to move matters away from their current situation. Buffy began to tell him the tale of Xander running into Harmony, and her soft voice, coupled with the quiet volume on the TV relaxed Spike. Relaxed him enough to grab his hand where the slayer had touched it and trace a thumb over the patch of skin. Still warm. As the tale wound on, and they began to speak of more inane things, like the program they were supposedly watching and college gossip, Spike realised that this was much better than killing the slayer. Maybe being her friend had benefits too.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! This was a prompt from my friend Francis, so I dedicate it to him.
> 
> Let me know if I've made any mistakes! Thank you for reading!


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